Oral QuestionDepartment for Science, Innovation and Technology

What steps her Department is taking to support investment in the life sciences industry.

Tabled: 27 April 2023Answered: 3 May 2023

Asked by

Jim Shannon

Democratic Unionist PartyStrangford

Answering Minister

the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

Answer from Hansard

The Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms)

We are reviewing universal credit to ensure that it makes work pay and tackles poverty, and we are looking at exactly the kind of problem that my hon. Friend highlights. I would be delighted to meet him to discuss it, because Nicola, Steven and all 7,000 households claiming universal credit in his constituency will benefit from the standard allowance increase proposed in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, which we will be debating next week; it is the biggest increase in the headline rate of benefits since at least 1980. [ Official Report , 26 June 2025; Vol. 769, c. 6WC.] (Correction)